Top Musicians Come Out In Favor Of File Sharing

from the what-happened-to-protecting-the-artists dept

So, everyone already knows that the RIAA's claims that they're suing music fans as a way to "protect the artists" is a lie. However, now, it looks like even the artists themselves are coming out against the RIAA that pretends to represent them. Fran Healy, the lead singer of the band Travis came out in favor of file sharing saying: "Kazaa and Napster and all that stuff is a brilliant way for kids to taste the album." Exactly. Meanwhile, over on Moby's own website, the musician is quoted as saying that he's pissed off about the RIAA suing one of his top fans, saying that he's "tempted to go onto Kazaa and download some of my own music, just to see if the RIAA would sue me for having mp3's of my own songs on my hard-drive." Update: Meanwhile in the Senate battle of the rappers, LL Cool J and Chuck D squared off in today's Senate hearing on file sharing with "Mr. Cool J" (as he was referred to in the hearings) making a misleading analogy between someone building a building and someone making music. Meanwhile, "Mr. D" continued to talk about how P2P was the new radio, and could be used as a great promotional and distribution tool, if only the industry would allow it.

Reader Comments

LL doesn't get it?

I'm deeply disappointed that a modern guy like LL Cool J doesn't understand the new opportunities presented by a medium like P2P. I certainly hope that he can take a step back and see that it's the same threat that bootlegs presented to the bus-loads of ticket-buying deadheads.

Will we get sued if we were to record 'In the House' on our VCRs?

Well, seriously, I always considered Mr Smith to be at least partially tuned into the real world, and able to make his own decisions. I hope he starts doing the former, again, so that he can again do the latter.

Best Quote:

In testimony before the senators, Bainwol defended the lawsuits."The decision to move forward with legal action was a last resort," he said. "The market is just falling apart when you're competing against free. This was the last thing we had in our quiver."

That's the most explicit admission I've seen yet that they know they have no business model.

They have no business model because they refuse to deal with the fact that:

In a Gallup Poll released Tuesday, 83 percent of teenagers polled said it was morally acceptable to download music from the Internet for free.